If you want to be a bird
Why don't you try a little flying
There's no denying
It gets you high
Why be shackled to your feet
When you've got wings
You haven't used yet
Don't wait for heaven
Get out and fly

Just glide there
Through the clear air
Making figure eights
Through the pearly gates
Where the soul and the universe meet

If you want to be a bird
It won't take much
To get you up there
But when you come down
Land on your feet

Off we go into the wild blue yonder
Flying high into the sun
Off they roar, zooming to meet our thunder
'Attaboy, give 'em the gun
Down we dive, spouting out flames from under
Off with one helluva roar
We live in fame, go down in flames
But nothing can stop the Army Air Corps

General Commentthis song is obviously about getting high. but to me it means more because i always have pot but sometimes dont have time to enjoy it.i here this song and its like yea for real "dont wait for heavin get out and fly" its time to get stoned rrrreeeeaaalllyyyy stoned and just chill with my little harmless high and forget about the rest of the rest of the world and its violent ass.

General CommentThis song is in no way telling you to take drugs and the intention is not to tell about experience with drugs!
This song is one of the best songs representing the aim of the hippie-era. The hippies came to existence as a revolution against old norms and an old way of thinking. They started a revolution against a lifestyle full of rules, thousands of expectations from the society to individuals and finally absolutely no (individual) freedom. The revolution of the hippies brought that freedom in society: not only materialistic but also mental freedom.
This song has got only one aim: to express this freedom! Just listen to the way the song is sung: every singer would say this is sung like shit. But the aim was not to create a peace of art for the opera: the singer is free to sing the way he wants to and the way he thinks it fits best in the song. And furthermore it is obvious that the song is completely free from any kind of structure! Just compare with a nowadays pop-song: Strophe, Refrain, Strophe, Refrain, Bridge, Refrain. But is there just any kind of repeated Refrain in this song?
Then you can take a look at the lyrics: a bird always stands for freedom. "Why be shackled to your feed when you got wings you haven't used yet" This shows that everyone is able to break free if he only wants to. Just "get out and fly"! "Don't wait for heaven, get out and fly" shows that you don't need the stick to religion in order to be free when you are dead or anything like that. If you want to be free ("a bird"), you only need to break free from stupid rules. The hippies were at last able to live in perfect harmony together without any given rules.
And to come back to the topic "drugs": Sure, the hippies took drugs! But drugs were not freedom itself! Drugs were just one way to get other points of view. Drugs gave the hippies a possibility to look at old traditions and at their parents' way of life with other eyes. So they could get the idea that they have got no freedom at all. The drugs gave freedom to nobody! They only could help understanding how life could be like without those stupid old traditions. But at the end the permanent drug consumption lead to addiction and drugs completely lost there function. The result was a junkie-era (I think 80s or 90s) taking drugs neither understanding nor controlling them. The most famous representative was of course Kurt Cobain: no more idea of what freedom means - his suicide shows that the drugs completely lost their function of helping to break free. Even his music (structured, boring lyrics, uncreative music, nothing REALLY new, nothing genial, just entertaining) shows the way back from freedom to an enslavement. Till today the music (most rock, metal, pop, techno) lost its freedom and depends on what society wants to hear. Along with its freedom music even lost its level of art: there won't be anything real new as long as music stays enslaved (or at least not free).

My InterpretationObviously the song can be interpreted to be about drugs (smoking pot, psychedelics, etc.) but if you read the last verse which is not included on the Easy Rider, and best-known, version of the song you might be able to see something else.

This song was written during the 60s, and the last verse can easily seem to pertain to the going to war, the Vietnam War. So while you, the listener, thinks the hippies can offer you freedom, the military (air force?) is marketing to you their ability to make you free too, and their ability to make you fly, through joining them and going to war.